CHENNAI: For the Second consecutive day, a section of drivers belonging to the taxi aggregators Ola and Uber stayed off the roads, voicing their protest against the exploitative practices of the two firms. Both Ola and Uber were once considered a goldmine by the drivers because of the high incentives they promised. But drivers said their fortunes had now changed completely for the worse.
Almost every Ola and Uber cab driver in the protest had a similar story of unpaid loans, which they had taken believing that the initial windfall income from these aggregators would last.
M Karthik (48), a disillusioned driver, said, “We have gone from eating biriyani at first to rice and then finally porridge (kanji).” How did this happen? Karthik, a former driver with a travel agency, said he joined Ola about two years ago after a stint with Fast Track, which incidentally is the homegrown competitor for both Ola and Uber.
“While now we are struggling to earn Rs 1,000, there was a time when the profit was Rs 2,500 a day after deducting all expenses,” Karthik told Express. When calculated, the monthly income for drivers like Karthik was Rs 75,000 a month, which is what gave wings to their dreams. While some were emboldened to buy their own cars, a majority were delighted that supporting their families would not prove to be an issue anymore.
S Balaji, who joined Ola in 2015, was one of those who felt brave to buy his own car. After observing a steady rise in his income, at one point earning as much as Rs 20,000 a week, he went to a showroom in Adyar. “The upturn made me buy my own car, a Swift Dzire, paying a monthly Rs 18,000 as dues,” he said. But today, Balaji claims he had not paid the dues for the last four months and was being hounded by regular calls from the banks.
Joining him, B Murali, the sole breadwinner for his family of five, said he had to pawn his wife’s thali (wedding chain) to pay last month’s car due. Having joined Uber about nine months back, Murali said, “The first few months were a delight.
We made reasonable money without much pressure. But now, we have to slog for close to 18 hours a day to make our ends meet.”
The problem drivers identified was the frequent drop in incentives and the infeasible fare structure. “The public might revel at the cheap rides and the firms might be cornering the market, but they are doing so at the expense of our mental and physical well being. Even autos charge more,” Balaji said.